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“You just saw me the weekend before last. I come to your house for dinner all the time, and you’re always checking in on me at my place.”
“We haven’t been here at the cabin together, though, for over a year.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been really busy at work, and it’s hard to get holidays during the first year.”
“You have them now, though,” my mom points out. “And we’d like to meet this mystery man.”
“A mystery man that you’d mysteriously bring to the cabin and not the house first,” Dad grumbles.
“There’s a reason for that, and…the holidays were last minute. I…okay, I’m sorry.” I can’t tell them the whole story, and it just makes me seem like a careless, selfish arsehole of a daughter.
I drop my pose and walk forward, opening my arms to hug my parents. I’m careful of my dad’s leg. He’s leaning heavily on his cane. More heavily than normal. He hurt his leg at work, and he’s been on disability for the past four years because he’s had so many surgeries to try and make things right. He always tells us he’s not in much pain, but his leg is pretty much pooched. His words, not mine. I hope he’s telling me the truth about the pain.
“So, where is this man you’ve got holed up in here, whisked off to our family’s sanctuary without introducing him to anyone first?”
I wince. “Actually, grandpa and grandma and Nate were here when we got here. I made them promise not to say anything. I’m sorry. It’s complicated, and I…I wasn’t trying to keep anything a secret. I was just…I don’t know. It’s a long story, and I don’t want to tell it right now, but can I distract you from being mad at me with a cup of the world’s most delicious coffee? I brought beans with me, so they’re fresh and yummy and aren’t from a can that’s been forgotten in the cupboard for the past, oh, eight years or so.”
My mom’s lips purse, and my dad can’t hide the surprise and slight sheen of hurt in his eyes that they’re the last ones to meet my new boyfriend, but for me, they swallow it back and nod in unison.
We make our way to the kitchen. I keep my ears peeled the whole time for noises from the bedroom, but Leon is putting things back together in there with an admirable amount of silence.
My mom and dad sit down at the table, and I start grinding beans. Leon’s favorite ones, which I purchased with my own money even though they’re so, so, so overpriced just because I knew he didn’t like to drink anything else. I got them before we came here. That should have said something right there. Something that went above and beyond the normal assistant duties.
Ormaybe I just didn’t want him to be any grouchier than he already was. People can be beastly without their coffee.
Yeah right. You had butterflies when you stood in front of that JP. Yeah, from nerves. Well, explain the ones that were going on in your lady bits then.
I nearly drop the grinder. But I manage to save it from certain death by floor at the last second.
When Leon appears in worn-out jeans that hug his muscular body the way my whole body longs to and a T-shirt that outlines his freaking eight pack yet somehow also hangs loosely on his frame and looks soft as a freaking flower petal, I nearly drop the grinder again.
This is probably the first time I’ve ever seen Leon look awkward in front of other people. He hasn’t even attempted to throw his usual mask and rigid demeanor in place, and that means more to me than he could ever know. When he smiles at me, soft and almost shy, I realize I’m wrong. He does know. And he’s doing it for me.
“Mom, Dad, this is Leon.” They turn in their seats at the table to look behind them. Leon pauses awkwardly. “And Leon, these are my parents. Melissa and James.”
“Holy smokies with mustard,” Mom mutters under her breath.
Yeah, Leon kind of has that effect. Even in casual clothing out here in the middle of what is basically the freaking wilderness, he’s a god in human form. Freaking stunning, breathtaking, mouth-drying, the whole bit. My dad’s mouth flatlines. Yeah, Leon isn’t like any of the other guys I’ve ever dated. My dad doesn’t like hot guys, jock-looking guys, and any guys who are interested in me if I’m being honest. He’s never rude, and he’s tolerated my boyfriends in the past, but maybe he can just sniff out that this is different. After all, he has dad senses.
Leon lifts a hand to wave hello, and he’s adorable. He smiles at my parents, then walks over to me. “Do you want some help?”
I’m perfectly capable of making coffee, but I nod anyway. Leon presses in close to my side as he grabs the carafe and fills it with water to put into the coffee maker. He leans in next to me, and I expect him to tell me that the bedroom is good to go and everything is under control, but instead, he inhales my scent by leaning in until his nose almost touches my hair.
“You smell like flowers,” he whispers thickly. “And me.”
Holy gahhhhh.My throat becomes just as thick, and my mouth goes bone dry. My lady bits shiver in response, and I’m pretty sure my backward panties are instantly soaked. Yup. All with my parents not more than ten feet away.
Leon rests his strong hand at the small of my back, splaying it there, and I realize it’s his left. He’s not wearing his hand.That thought sounds straight-up so strange.He’s completely unguarded right now. Unguarded and trusting. And it fills me with joy, a crazy amount of trepidation, and the painful swelling that I’ve come to realize is my heart doing funny things in my chest.
He kisses me on the cheek sweetly before he leaves me to put the beans in the coffee maker and turn it on. He shifts away, getting four mugs out of the cupboard, finding the sugar, then getting the container of cream out of the fridge.
My dad, who has been unusually silent the entire time, clears his throat as soon as Leon takes a seat at the table. “Who’s up for some boating?”
I almost burst out laughing because this, at least, is the one thing so far in this whole crazy time out here at the cabin that is entirely predictable.
13
LEON
